The present invention relates to the field of housing non-human animals, particularly to the field of handling non-human animals that are potentially dangerous to humans, such as venomous snakes.
Maintaining animals in non-natural environments, such as in zoos or laboratories, presents several problems to the keepers of the animals. In addition to providing a suitable environment for the animals, a keeper must ensure the safety of persons who study or care for the animals. For several species, there are guidelines that researchers must follow in the housing of the animals, such as those of the American Association for the Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC).
Housing for laboratory animals must meet both safety and animal care requirements. In recent years, several commercial designs for the housing of reptiles have appeared. These vary from simple modified aquaria to elaborate polycarbonate vivaria. The majority of these cages, however, are intended for animals that are not dangerous to human handlers. Cages designed for housing dangerous animals, such as venomous snakes or aggressive mammals, are lacking.
In the laboratory, venomous snakes are often housed in cages that are modified glass aquaria with sliding, lockable tops. In order to move a snake from the cage, a snake hook is used. However, several types of snakes, such as the habu pit viper, do not sit passively on the hook. Rather, they use the hook as a branch and crawl towards the handler. Often, the snakes become agitated and even more dangerous when the handler attempts to prevent the snake from crawling on the snake hook.
A need exists for a cage system that permits an animal to be removed from the cage without danger to the animal or to the handler and without risk of escape of the animal. It must also provide a non-stressful living environment for the animal, permit the normal behavior of the animal to be observed, and meet the standards for animal care required by the AAALAC.
Presently available cages fail to satisfy these needs. Frye, Frederic, Captive Husbandry, Chapter 2 of Biomedical and Surgical Aspects of Captive Reptile Husbandry, Vol. 1, pages 11 to 36, Krieger Publishing Co. Malabar, Fla. (1991) discloses a squeeze cage for snakes in which a panel is used to compress a snake and to crowd the animal into a corner of the cage. Openings in the cage permit an attendant to work on the immobilized animal. Immobilizing an animal in this way is frequently stressful to the animal and does not facilitate the removal of the animal from the cage. In order to do so, the animal must be grasped and placed in a separate confinement.
Mason et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,969, disclose a cage for arboreal reptiles which can be divided into upper and lower or side-by-side compartments by the insertion of a removable panel. Each of the compartments has its own door to provide access to the individual compartment by an attendant. When in position, the panel prevents an animal from exiting a compartment in which it is confined and entering the other compartment. The cage of Mason does not disclose a way to safely remove an animal from the cage. Nor does it provide a hide box, an element that is helpful in maintaining a natural and secure environment for a caged mammal or reptile.
Matsumoto U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,778, discloses a housing for small pet animals that contains a top cage portion and a bottom underground passage portion. A caged animal enters and exits the top and bottom portions by a small hole that connects the two portions. The bottom portion contains an underground passage that serves as a burrow that the animal may use as a nest-hole. A panel in the front of the bottom portion may be removed vertically to permit access for an attendant to the underground portion. Matsumoto does not disclose a way to confine an animal to either of the two portions of the cage. Additionally, Matsumoto does not disclose a system by which the animal may be safely removed from the cage, without the risk of injury to the attendant or the animal or of escape of the animal.
Coote, J., Breeding Colubrid Snakes, Mainly Lampropeltis, pp. 5-17 in Townson and Lawrence (eds.) Reptiles: Breeding, Behaviour and Veterinary Aspects, British Herpetological Society, London, U.K. (1985), discloses a cage for housing snakes. The cage includes a glass-doored upper portion connected to a lower portion by a length of drainpipe through which a snake may crawl from one portion of the cage to the other. The lower portion is a removable drawer that serves as a hide box for the snake and permits the snake to be removed from the cage. Because the fixed floor of the upper portion serves as roof of the drawer, the top of the drawer is always open when it is removed from the cage. Consequently, there is no means for preventing the animal from attacking an attendant or from escaping.
The present invention is a cage for agile or dangerous animals, such as rodents and snakes, that has at least two adjacent compartments having their interior space interconnected by an externally openable and closeable orifice and in which one of the compartments is a sealable drawer assembly that can be removed from the cage by sliding it out of the cage.
The cage of the invention provides a living space for an animal within a compartment that is connected to a second sealable compartment that can be used as a hide box and that can be removed from the cage. Thus, the cage of the invention provides a natural, stress-free living space and a second space, such as a hide-box, that permits an animal, such as a dangerous animal or an agile animal that can readily escape, like a snake or a rodent, to be removed from the cage without danger to an attendant or to the animal, without the risk of escape from the cage, and with a minimum of stress to the animal.
The two adjacent compartments may be vertically oriented to each other with an upper and lower compartment. The floor of the upper compartment and the roof of the lower compartment contain an opening that permits an animal to move from one compartment to the other. The opening is sealable and openable by an attendant outside the cage to restrict the animal to one or the other compartments or to allow the animal to travel freely between the compartments. One of the compartments, typically the lower compartment, is a drawer having a closed top containing the externally openable and closeable orifice. The drawer can be slid from the cage, permitting an animal within it to be removed from the cage without the risk of escape and without risk of injury to the attendant or to the animal.
Preferably, the orifice between the compartments is externally sealable and openable at either or both of the floor of the upper or roof of the lower compartment. In this way, an animal may be restrained in the lower compartment for removal from the cage or for maintenance of the upper compartment or may be restrained in the upper compartment while the lower compartment is removed from the cage for cleaning.
In an alternative embodiment, the compartments, including the sliding drawer compartment, are in horizontal orientation. That is, the two compartments are oriented side-by-side and the communicating orifice is situated in the adjacent vertical sides of the compartments.